LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shell' HV SIS 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



r-A 



AN 



xhaustive Bible Essay. 



ENTITLED: 



"NO LICENSE FOR ALCOHOLIC DRINKS IN 
THE BIBLE/' 

THESE DRINKS HAVE RUINED PROPHETS, PRIESTS, AND KINGS. 

Bo not think your Church Memberships or the Prayers of the Church 
will save you if you drink them. 



INTENDED AS A TEXT-BOOK FOR TEMPERANCE LECTURERS, AND 
AS AUTHORITY IN COURTS OF LAW. 






by HENRY McKINNEY, Great Bend, Penn. 









GREAT BEND, SUSQUEHANNA CO., PA. 

PUBLISHED BY THE A UTHOR. 



Price, Single, 25 cts. Five Copies, $1. #15 per Hundred. 



Copyrighted according to Act of Congress in the year 1879. All rights reserved. 



BIBLE ESSAY. 



NO LICENSE FOR ALCOHOLIC DRINKS IN THE BIBLE. 



The Lord never made alcoholic drinks. He never drank them, or 
made what we call wine. There are two kinds of wine mentioned in 
the Bible, the unfermented and the alcoholic. The one, alcoholic; 
"Look not upon the wine, when it giveth the color in the cup, when 
it moveth itself aright : at last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like 
an adder." These serpents and adders were rank poison ; and the di- 
rect inference is, that this wine was the same, a poison, when used as a 
beverage. " "Who hath woe \ Who hath contentions ? Who hath bab- 
blings? They that tarry at the wine, they that go to seek mixed 
w r ine." Deut. xxxii. 33 : " Their wine is the poison of dragons, and 
the cruel venom of asps." Please begin at verse thirty-one, and read 
the context. This agrees with scientific experiments, and the best 
medical authority, that alcoholic drinks are poison ; a little confuses 
the brain ; more, causes paralysis, or drunkenness ; the disuse of the 
limbs, or lif elessness ; more, death. Tippling, or daily drinking, causes 
diseases, poisons the system, and in case of epidemics or accidents, such 
persons are apt to die. This is from the best medical authority in the 
world. Physicians often prescribe arsenic, belladonna, opium, alcohol, 
and other poison for some immediate effect. Paul to Timothy (a young 
preacher) v. 33 : " Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for 
thy stomach? s sake, and thine often infirmities." This is clearly medi- 
cal, and with judicious medical treatment we have no business. 

Prov. xxxi. 6, 7 ; 6v.: " Give strong drink unto him that is ready to 
perish, and wune unto those that be of heavy heart" 7 v. : " Let him 
drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." In 
the preceding verses, we find : " It is not for kings and princes to 
drink wine or strong drink." This is prohibited. But in the sixth verse 



is a medical prescription of " Strong drink to him that is ready to per- 
ish, and wine to those of heavy hearts." " Heavy hearts " means faint- 
ness, as through great affliction. Give them wine or something stimu- 
lating for the occasion. But the seventh verse: "Let him" (who? 
Why, him that is ready to perish), drink. There is no. other him spoken 
of, or persons spoken of, except the kings and princes (who were for- 
bidden to drink), consequently let him that is ready to perish (to die), 
drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery (distress) no 
more. This is certainly a medical prescription for certain specified 
cases. Again, Is. xxii. 13, li: "And behold joy and gladness, slay- 
ing oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine ; let us eat 
and drink, for to-morrow we shall die." . . . . " Surely this iniquity 
shall not he purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord, of hosts." 
Here, instead of commending drinking, God calls it a crime. See, 
also, 1 Cor. xv. 32. Eead Prov. iv. 1-4-20 : " Enter not into the path 
of the wicked, .... for they eat the bread of wickedness and drink 
the wine of violence. But the path of the just is as the shining light, 
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." See Is. xliii. 18-22 : 
" The Lord giveth water to drink." Prov. xx. 1 ; Is. v. 11, 12. 

The Rechabites obeyed their father Jonadab, who commanded them, 
saying : " Ye shall drink no wine ; neither yon, nor your sons forever." 
See Jer. xxxv. : " Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, be- 
cause ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and 
kept all his precepts, and done all he hath commanded yon. There- 
fore, saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab the son of 
Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me forever." Samson's 
mother was met by an angel, and forbidden using (this kind of) wine 
and strong drink, as it would affect her offspring. Poisons do. Hab. 
ii. 15, 16 : " Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink ; that put- 
teth thy bottle to him and maketh him drunken also, that thon may- 
est look on their nakedness ! Thon art filled with shame for glory ; 
drink thon also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the 
Lord's right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing 
shall be on thy glory." Pifth and sixth verses : " Yea, also, becanse 
he transgresseth by wine, he is a prond man, neither Tceepeth at home, 



who enlargeth his desire as hell Woe to him that increaseth 

that which is not his." From the foregoing, it is evident that God for- 
bade the drinking of this kind of wine, and pronounced a woe upon 
them who drink or sell it, and also upon them w T ho furnish it to their 
neighbors. ■ : . 

For the present we will leave the consideration of the alcoholic wine, 
and turn our attention to the use of the other, or the unfermented 
wine. 

Is. lxv. 8 : "Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is fonnd in the 
cluster, and one saith destroy it not, for a olessing is in it, so will I 
do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all." This is the 
unfermented wine, and "a blessing is in it." See also Neh. x. 39: 
"For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the 
offering of the corn, of the new wine, and the oil, unto the chambers, 
where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests that minister, 
and the porters, and the singars; and we will not forsake the house 
of our God." Also xiii. 5-12 : " And he had prepared for him a great 
chamber, w 7 here aforetime they laid the meat-offerings, the frankin- 
cense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the corn, the new wine, and the 
oil, which was commanded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, 
and the porters, and the offerings of the priests." ." Then brought all 
Judah the tithe of the corn, and the new wine, and the oil unto the 
treasuries." Also 2 Chron. xxxi. 5: "And as soon as the command- 
ment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the 
firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil and honey, and of all the increase 
of the fields, and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly." 

Matt. xxvi. 26-30 : " But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth 
of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you 
in my Father's kingdom." This was the Lord's Supper, and He did 
not drink alcoholic drink then, but " the fruit of the vine," not what 
we or liquor-dealers call wine. As the Lord's Supper was not in the 
time of vintage, He could not have gotten the fruit of the vine, un- 
less it had been kept unfermented by .some proaess. The ancients 
boiled new grape-juice dowm thick, and cleansed it by turning up a 
heavy sod, and taking clean earth and putting it into the kettle to 



purify it, then strain off and put in bottles. There are various ways 
of making unfermented wine and keeping it. "We have the new wine 
in grape jelly. We have it also prepared for communion service in 
some places. History shows that un fermented wine was made and 
kept in our Lord's time, and His use of it at the Lord's Supper brings 
harmony out of the Bible. Another question: How could Christ 
make alcoholic wine out of water, and order it given to the governor 
of the feast to drink f as some wickedly or ignorantly say, when 
alcoholic wine was forbidden by the prophets four hundred years pre- 
viously. " Christ came to fulfill all righteousness," not to break the 
law. Now, I am not prepared to say that it was alcoholic wine Paul 
prescribed for Timothy. The unfermented wine would have nutritious 
qualities the other would not, and be a cooling drink, something like 
pure cream tartar, which, for a fevered system, is a refreshing, cooling 
drink. But in the case of our Lord : Christ was a high-priest after the 
order of Melchisedee, having neither beginning nor ending of days. 
"With Him all things past or in the future is one eternal present. 
Further, the priesthood were forbidden to use alcoholic wine or strong 
drink, and " He came to fulfill the law and make it honorable." Lev. 
x. 8-11 : " And the Lord spake unto Aaron, Do not drink wine nor 
strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when thou goest into the 
tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die, and that ye put a differ- 
ence between the holy and the unholy ', and between clean and un- 
clean, and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes 
which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses." 

This interpretation of the Scriptures harmonizes the Old and New 
Testaments, and shows God one and the same being, " without varia- 
bleness," laboring for the welfare of the human race, and to make 
their bodies fit temples for the Holy Ghost, by sobriety and godly 
living. The other construction destroys the harmony of the Old and 
New Testaments, shows inconsistencies, not the attributes of God, and 
is the doctrine of devils. Let all churches use the unfermented wine, 
and give no countenance to this doctrine. 

Now we will consider tippling and drunkenness. 1 Tim. ill. : 
He says of deacons, " They must be sober, of good behavior, not given 



to wine, not a brawler ; and the wives also, be grave, not slanderers, 
sober, faithful in all things.'' Here Paul requires Christians to be 
sober, so also in 1 Thess. v. : " They that are drunken, are drunken in 
the night, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breast- 
plate of faith and love, and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation" 
Now, the tippler is not sober, in the Bible sense ; a drinking person 
is under the influence of liquor ; and a drunken person is a helpless 
person. They only differ in degree. Neither of them are sober in 
the Bible sense. God commands total abstinence. God commended 
the Bechabites because they were teetotalers. They would not even 
taste it. They did not join the Church, and then slip into the drug- 
stores and take a drink, and keep it in the cellar. (Bead 1 Cor. v. 
9-13 : To put such persons out of the Church). Isa. lvi. 9 : " All ye 

beasts of the field, come to devour Yea, they are greedy dogs. 

.... Shepherds that can not understand Come, say they, I will 

fetch wine and we will fill ourselves with strong drink ; and to-mor- 
row will be as this day, and much more abundant." Isa. v. 20-26 : 
" Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength 
to mingle strong drink, who justify the wicked for reward, and take 
away the righteousness of the righteous from him." " Therefore, as 
fire devoureth the stubble, .... because they have cast away the 
law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of 
Israel." Now, is tippling glorifying God? Is it even avoiding 
the appearance of evil ? 

In Joel iii. 3 : " And they have cast lots for my people, and have 
given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might 
drink." This is assigned as a reason for His judgments. " Drunken- 
ness clotheth a man in rags." Now, Messrs. Seller and Drinker, if you 
want a license to clothe you in purple, and your neighbor and family 
m rags, you can not find the license in the Bible, and the Word of 
God expressly says, " For all these things you will be brought to judg- 
ment at the last day." Have you the brass to defy God, and disobey 
Him, ruin your neighbor and yourself % for His Word classes fer- 
mented wine and strong drink, whoredom and drinking, chambering 
and wantonness, together, and says persons thus guilty shall never 



enter His kingdom. Please read Esther i. : " Drinking according 
to law ; none did compel ; " and the result, a wicked divorce. Also 
the third chapter, where Haman conspires to rob and murder a nation, 
and the king issues the decree to rob and murder innocent people, and 
then, "They loth sit down to drinkP Oh, wine! surely thou art 
Satan's jewel, the hotbed of wickedness. Also Isa. xxviii. 7 : ~ " The 
priest and the prophet have erred through -strong drink, they are 
swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink, 
they err in vision, they stumble in judgment." " All Scripture is 
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for reproof, for instruc- 
tion, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to 
every good work." 

The Lord commanded the prophets to tell the people of their sins, 
their idolatry, their wine-bibbing, using strong drink, their whore- 
doms, their riotings, swellings, tumults, their chambering and wan- 
tonness ; for all these affiliated together, twin sisters, even as at the 
present day. But now the lines have fallen in slippery places, and 
the churches have so much religion, that intemperance, license, or 
prohibition are questions of no great importance with them ; and their 
condemnation only distracts the membership, and makes a commo- 
tion among them ; that the advocacy of prohibition, and voting for it, 
reminds them of the curses on abolitionists in the days of slavery. 
Gideon said, " Let the weary and faint-hearted, and all who wisheth, go 
home ; but to the three hundred, those that lapped, go forward to the 
battle of the Lord and to victory." 

Again, Dan., chap. v. : " Belshazzar the king made a great feast to 
a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Bel- 
shazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and 
silver vessels which h's father Kebuchadnezzar had taken out of the 
temple which was in Jerusalem ; that the king and his princes, his 
wives and his concubines, might drink therein. Then they brought 
the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of 
God which was at Jerusalem ; and the king and his princes, his wives 
and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine and praised the 
gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone, In 



the same hour came forth lingers of a man's hand, and wrote over 
against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's 
palace ; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the 
king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so 
that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against 
another. And Daniel was called to intrepret the writing." Yerse 18 : 
u Then Daniel answered and said, O thou king, the most high God 
gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, 
and honor. But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened 
in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his 
glory from him ; and he was driven from the sons of men ; and his 
heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with wild asses ; 
they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew 
of heaven ; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom 
of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will. And 
thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou 
knowest all this ; but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, 
and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou 
and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines, have drunk wine in 
them ; thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, 
wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know ; and the God in 
whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not 
glorified. Then was the part of the hand sent from him, and this 
writing was written : Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. This is the in- 
terpretation of the thing : Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom, 
and finished it. Tekel, thou art w r eighed in the balance, and found 
wanting. Peres, thy kingdom is divided among the Medes and 
Persians. 

" In that night was Belshazzar, the King of the Chaldeans, slain, and 
Darius the Midian took the kingdom, being about threescore and 
two years old*" Thus we read in the Word of God, His judgments 
upon the wicked who drank and rioted ; and even used the vessels be- 
longing to the temple for alcoholic drinks. 

Now, it is in evidence, Jeremiah xxxv., that Jonadab commanded 
his sons, the Kechabites, saying : " Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, 



8 

nor your sons forever; ? ' and God sanctioned it ; and three hundred 
vears afterward God reproved the Jews for not obeying Him ; and 
brought evil upon them ; but blessed and commended the Eechabites 
for total abstinence, ^ow, what authority have men to grant license 
to sell alcoholic drinks or make them { If God be for us, who can be 
against us ? 

Again, it is in evidence, " That they have given a boy for a harlot, 
and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink ;" " That it biteth like 
a serpent, and stingeth like an adder;" " That their wine is the poison 
of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.'' That the best medical 
authorities say it is a poison. Forbids the putting .the bottle to the 
neighbor's mouth and making him drunken also. Forbids tippling or 
drinking. That the priest and the prophet have erred by it. The 
prophets were commanded to " cry aloud and spare not ' ' against these 
sins. Therefore, to buy alcoholic drinks is a sin ; to drink it is a .:in ; 
to sell or give away to drink is sin. Under this weight of evidence 
it follows: For men to license the sale of alcoholic drinks is sin; and 
the taking pay for said license is selling an indulgence to sin. 

Why, then, not prohibit the manufacture and sale of these drinks, 
when we know 1 00,000 in the United States are killed yearly by them ; 
the misery and poverty it causes ; the lunatics and tramps it makes ; 
it fills our jails and poorhouses, paralyzes industries, and impoverishes 
nations, and doubles our taxes; or does the common welfare for 
which Governments are instituted mean the robbing and killing the 
people ? In the light of revealed truth we say license to sell alco- 
holic drinks is against God ? s law, consequently said license is null and 
void, and of no effect, and should be repealed, and the manufacture 
and sale prohibited. 

WHAT SHALL IT PEOFIT A MAN IF HE GAIN THE 
WHOLE WORLD, AND LOSE HIS OIVX SOUL % 

Header ! buy this pamphlet and lend it to your neighbors, drinkers 
liquor-dealers, and see how much good you can do with it. 



AN 



•P 



xpsnvE Bib 



jE 




ENTITLED: 



' 'NO LICENSE FOR ALCOHOLIC DRINKS IN 
THE BIBLE." 

THESE DRINKS HAVE RUINED PROPHETS, PRIESTS, AND KINGS. 

Do not think your Church Membership, or the Prayers of the Church 
zv ill save you if you drink them. 



INTENDED AS A TEXT-BOOK FOR TEMPERANCE LECTURERS, AND 
AS AUTHORITY IN COURTS OF LAW. 



by HENRY McKINNEY, Great Bend, Penn. 



GREAT BEND, SUSQUEHANNA CO., PA. 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 



Price, Single, 25 cts. Five Copies, #1. #15 per Hundred, 



Copyrighted according to Act of Congress in the year 1879. All rights reserved. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

027 293 750 3 



kAMytfl 



